Sure, players saw it coming, but expectation and execution are entirely different things. During BlizzCon’s opening ceremonies, Blizzard roundhouse kicked fans’ perceptions of what Warcraft’s all about with warm, soothing colors, furry fists of fury, and heaping dollops of d’aaaaaaw. Folks weaned on bloodshed, angst, and cold, calculating strategy were understandably (and audibly) upset.

Are things really as bad as they seem, though? Will Blizzard’s behemoth be done in not by a giant apocalypse dragon, but by fluffy – and perhaps even wuffy – pandas? I sat down with senior game producer John Lagrave to get the full scoop. I quizzed him on everything from how Blizzard’s keeping Pandaria interesting in spite of its light-hearted nature, to whether Blizzard’s finally jumped the shark, to WoW’s recent subscriber leak, to – yes – a certain Dreamworks-licensed martial arts bear.

VG247: When Chris Metzen introduced Mists of Pandaria, he called it “the calm before the storm.” What is that “storm,” though? I mean, a freaking apocalypse dragon isn’t generally the opening act for, you know, cuddly bears. How will that even work?

John Lagrave, senior game producer: So, for the past three expansions, we’ve had these amazing villains that players have had to overcome. Horde and Alliance have united to defeat Illidan and Arthas. And so we’ve had the notion of neutral cities like Shattrath and Dalaran where you sit there and work in cooperation because you have this terrible evil to deal with.

Well, with Thrall healing the world and Deathwing no longer a threat, the notion is that those factions still don’t like each other. So you as a player – when you go through and explore Pandaria – you see this amazing place. And you start learning about the Pandarens and the lore of the area. That’s the calm, right? It’s a very serene place, and you’re learning about how this land works as you quest through. But that’s the calm.

At some point, you’re gonna be finished. And really, the problem is that there’s Horde or there’s Alliance, and [those other guys] suck. So that’s the war. It’s the storm on the horizon. That’s your challenge again. It really hearkens back to the original game where you landed in Hillsbrad because the Alliance were coming up and starting to fight. That spontaneous world PVP was happening. That’s the old war that’s coming back.

So how do you even get players excited about that? You’re billing it as “the calm.” Generally, that connotates to “not very exciting.” The point between the epic clashes. Those pages everybody skipped in Lord of the Rings where people started singing. How do you make people say “Oh boy!” about that?

Announcement trailer.

Right. Who cares about that? Who cares about Pandaria? Well, a bunch of different things. First of all, we do that through our questing system and the stories we tell within it. Also, we do that through art. I mean, there’s no two ways about it. We do it through great level design and the art we expose to players. So we’re telling a story that’s visually appealing. And that further drives people.

People often say, “Oh, I don’t read the quest text.” You know what? They do. They don’t read the quests completely, but they’re skimming it. They’re still curious. What I always find is I’ll be like “Do you know about this [story related thing],” and people will be like “Oh yeah!” And I’ll be like “Well, how do you know about it?” And they’ll be like “Uhhh, I don’t know.” Well, they had to have read at least part of the quest.

What you’re going to be learning as you go through Pandaria is about the Pandarens and the Mogu – who they are, what they do. You’re really going to be dealing with that notion of “What is that story? Why is this race here? Why is it being exposed to us?”

So I think [we'll interest people] through really good story telling and the visual appeal. You know, people love looking through what we do. Which is really nice as well.

You announced the Annual Pass, which offers some stupidly great benefits. From where I’m standing, though, it also looks like a great way to make players stick around for the long haul. Honestly, was that your main motivation? To keep players from bidding farewell to WoW before things got interesting again?

Our main objective is to have people play our games [laughs]. OK, so I’ll tell you as a developer. Here’s what I care about: I care that you play my game, right? It ultimately means that we’re excited about Diablo III. I think Diablo III’s an awesome game. I’ve been playing it a lot. I’m not sort of a Diablo fan; I’m a huge Diablo fan. When I came into Blizzard, I came in as a Mac Diablo tester. When we were porting from PC to Mac, that’s what I was doing. I was QA testing it. When I wasn’t with Blizzard, we used to do LAN parties with Diablo. I’m a nutty, nutty Diablo fan.

And there are certain [benefits]. I mean, it’s been a long time since Diablo II, so it’s good to expose people to [the franchise]. It’s a great game. And I think it’s a win. We obviously like people playing WoW. I want people to play what I do. But yeah, I would love people to play Diablo III. So the Annual Pass makes sense. It’s vastly appealing. You’re paying for WoW anyway. Here’s Diablo III. Go have fun.

WoW’s developed this sort of expansion-centric cycle. Your subscriber numbers rocket each time an expansion (sometimes literally) sets your world on fire, but slowly plummet after that – until a new expansion swoops in to save the day at the last second.

It’s an ebb-and-flow.

Right. But do you think that speaks to a deeper problem with your game? That its core mechanics no longer entertain in the long-term? Or is it simply an issue of content that all MMOs – in some form or another – have to deal with?

Click to enlarge.

[Laughs]. That was a great question. It really was. So there is give-and-take. People come back to expansions and then trail on. What we try to do when we release an expansion is get you interested in what we’re doing, because we’ve tried to make something cool and worthwhile. We like to release those content patches so that you feel like you’re getting good value. We don’t want to sit there and have you feel like “Well, I played through the expansion. I got to the next level. Now I’m done.” We definitely want you to say, “Hey, Blizzard, are you giving me good content and good value for what I’m paying?”

And, you know, that’s a really legitimate concern for people to have, right? Money can be very tight. You should feel like you’re getting good value. That’s what we’re trying to do. So when we do our expansions, we’re saying, “Hey, we think we’ve got something really awesome for you to play.” And when we do our content patches, we think “Hey, these are pretty interesting things for you to do.” And we hope people play.

Yeah, it’s ebb-and-flow. It’s not cyclical. Things come in and come out. We seem to be doing OK on that. I’m not saying we’re resting on our laurels. We always try to one-up ourselves and do a better job at it. We’re constantly – I swear to god – trying to improve the game in terms of how it functions, how it looks. We polish all the time. We meticulously polish. We polish systems that are already established, because – you know what? – it just doesn’t work as well [anymore]. So we do that all the time. So there is a give-and-take there, but we’re trying to make it better.

I’ll say this: We’ve also been very fortunate in that people seem to like what we’re doing.

Do you think, though, that the “traditional” MMO formula is finally going stale? Do you think that’s the root of your post-expansion exoduses? Is there any desire to really change things up? Say, throw out the questing system or set the whole game in space?

Well, we did a fair amount of that with Cataclysm, right? I mean, questing could be pretty good, but did you play WoW classic [before any expansions]? Questing in classic kind of sucked. It really did. Like, there were some good quests, but there were also some quests… there’s the classic example of the quest in Ashenvale where you went back-and-forth to the same fucking dude, like, four times. It’s like “OK, can’t I have just killed the guy I was supposed to see and be on my way?”

What we did in Cataclysm was re-doing that whole questing system and how we told stories through it. What we did with phasing to tell stories – yeah, we’re absolutely willing to [change things up]. And we do that. So that’s a really good example of it. We’re not afraid of also doing a lot of work and throwing it all away. So yes, we absolutely look at stuff and say, “That’s shit. Let’s improve on it.” But we also say, “That didn’t work out. Let’s throw it away.”

So you got quite the reaction to Pandaria from the Internet Peanut Gallery. And I can’t blame them entirely. I mean, it connotates certain things… like a particular Jack Black film.

Really? That looks Jack Black-y – where [a nearby poster of a Pandaren kicking an undead character's jaw off] is crushing his skull?

Well, insofar as the words “pandas” and “fighting” are involved.

“What we’re trying to do is say, ‘These guys can be badasses.’ These guys can be – at the start – badasses. These are warriors. These are fierce, awesome fighters. And they’re also hard-drinking dudes, too.”

Gotcha. And certainly it’s very valid. It’s like, what has been a huge exposure to the current generation of people involving pandas? Certainly that film. What we’re trying to do is say, “These guys can be badasses.” These guys can be – at the start – badasses. These are warriors. These are fierce, awesome fighters. And they’re also hard-drinking dudes, too.

So you mean you’re not trying to jump the shark? Shocking. Could the Internet be… wrong? No. Never. My whole world is falling apart. Seriously, though, what do you say to those people?

Well, I mean, try the beta. Try the game demo on the floor. See if we actually have jumped the shark – rather than relying on your initial reaction to something that we aren’t. Maybe you’re thinking about what something else is, and you’re thinking we’re doing that. But we’re Blizzard Entertainment. We try to do something much better. So try and give us a shot. Take a look at the panda and what we’re trying to do with the panda. I think you’ll find it very, very different from anything you’ve seen before.

You’ve eliminated auto-attack with Pandarens. That, of course, has been a pillar of every WoW class prior. Do you have any plans to give other classes a similar shake-up?

It’s possible. It’s always possible. Like, we’re going through what – our third iteration on the talent system? So we’re always willing to look at stuff and say, “This is working in part; this isn’t working in other parts. Let’s change it.”

For the monk, it makes sense to remove auto-attack. Just the notion of how you build up your Chi and how you want to have the light and dark – it makes sense to do it that way. Will we say that the Warrior will [no longer] have an auto-attack? Possibly. I don’t think so. But it’s possible.

The last thing you want to do is have a game that’s literally “Oh, I know exactly what they do.” I think we’re pretty good at saying, “Is this still interesting for us? Is this a worthwhile thing at all? Did we fail?” So it’s possible. We don’t have any plans at this time to sit there and say, “Hey, we’re gonna be changing the combat mechanics of all our other classes.” But we will look at what we do with the monk and we’ll respond to what people tell us. And we’ll possibly agree. Or we’ll possibly say, “That works if we did it this way.” Or we’ll possibly disagree.

It’s kind of a crappy answer, but it’s the truth. We’re gonna say, “Maybe. But right now, we don’t have any plans.”

You’ve announced a Pokemon-esque pet battling system, and I totally saw a Pandaren using Ryu’s spin kick from Street Fighter. Point is, WoW’s not afraid to be referential – sometimes blatantly so. When do you rein it in, though? How much is too much? Do you ever worry that you’re being too referential?

Are we too focused on other people’s stuff that we just copy and go? I think any creative group is influenced by the world we live in. What a surprise, right? [Laughs]. There’s some kick-ass shit out there. It may be referential, but certainly homages as well. There’s some awesome stuff, and we’re like “Yeah, that’d be cool to have, and we’d like to see it in our game too.”

So yeah, we do all that referencing. I mean, there are tons of pop culture references in our game. It’s also appealing to our customer base. They like to see that and get what that is. It also provides an anchor to what we’re doing – like “OK, I’ve got a reference to what that is. I understand where I’m supposed to be going with this.”

“When our bullshit meter goes off? When we go ‘Yeah, that doesn’t work. That’s kind of stupid.’ I mean, we’re our own worst critics, and we’re brutal to each other in our meetings.”

We also like to polish and modify. We’re like “Now that we’ve done this, we can do it in a much better way.” So yes, we do all that stuff. Absolutely, 100 percent, we do all that stuff. But we like to make our own spin on it.

When our bullshit meter goes off? When we go “Yeah, that doesn’t work. That’s kind of stupid.” I mean, we’re our own worst critics, and we’re brutal to each other in our meetings. Just, absolutely brutal to each other. Literally, it’s like “That’s too much. That’s ridiculous. That doesn’t work. I don’t get it. I don’t like it.”

The great thing about working on the World of Warcraft dev team is that – at any point – you as a developer can walk into my office as a developer and say, “Here are my thoughts on what you’re doing.” And it’s valued. It’s not rejected. It’s not “What do you mean – coming in and telling me that stuff?” Because I can do the same to you. We have a great give-and-take. It means you’re not the sole vision. We have 100 some-odd people that are the vision for our game. And that means we’re that much better.

What’s the current timeframe for the Pandaria beta?

We haven’t gotten anything announced yet. We obviously want to give it to everybody soon. Given our previous timelines, I think your readers can make some pretty educated guesses on where we are in development. Soon is all I can say.

So what about Blizzard’s desire to speed up the expansion production cycle? Has this one been faster?

It doesn’t seem like it, but yeah, we’re trying to be. You know, we really are an 800 lb ballerina. We think we can get up on point, but it’s tough.

But we do want to try and get it out faster. Yeah, I don’t have any dates. Nobody on the development team could tell you when the date is. We’ll work on it – and we’ll be going back next week and talking about it – but we don’t have a date yet.

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15 Comments

I still don’t get why people aren’t excited for the pandarens inclusion into WoW. I mean they were in WarCraft 3, and they’ve been in the concept art for several of Blizzards games, including WoW. I don’t play WoW myself, but i might actually pick this up just because i want to experience the pandaren story, which is really scarce at this point compared to several of the other races in the universe.

@2 @3 Actually, most WoW players I know don’t complain about the Pandarens (and I, as a former player, think about trying this expansion just for them). I hear more complaints about the changes in the talents system. But DSB is right, it’s more a reaction to change than to the contents of this change.

@4 Sounds familiar. I should probably stress the fact that I was one myself, and left once I actually played Lich King. That expansion killed it for me.

Talents and mechanics I can somewhat understand though. If you’re raiding or PVP’ing in a serious way, then it doesn’t feel very good once you have to completely retool the way you play, and it doesn’t always turn out for the better.

I was a rogue going into Burning Crusade, and everybody kept telling me that swords were OMG SO UBER, and I was like “K” so I went fists instead, and ended up besting every rogue in my guild, which was a top notch raiding guild at that time.

That kinda became part of the game for me, because proper fists were seriously rare (had to do arena even!) and it was obvious through the updates that Blizzard were keeping fists open for rogues, but still not really committing to it.

So then once Lich King came around and they decided to throw fists squarely to the enhancement shamans, that was one thing that made the game significantly less fun for me. Having to use daggers and a different talent tree also slowed down the rotations and made it far less interesting.

As am I and I am actually looking forward to this expansion and can’t wait to play it. I enjoy WoW occasionally, I typically go on a 6 month hiatus and then I will play again the reason why its been a year since I have played it is because of child, school and work. My only free time goes to an hour or two of gaming and the games I do play are the ones that have just released.

@6 I understand your stance on gameplay changes but I think the problem is worse here. I mean if the gameplay changes for the better (or at least an equivalently good other gameplay), it’s just a matter of getting used to this new one, it can even make the game more interesting. The problem here is that WoW gameplay seems to be constantly dubbed down since WotLK… And Cataclysm was even worse in that it kept on dubbing the gameplay down AND forced players to play significantly more with more and more items needed to craft anything for example.
But, the monks seem fun to play and the new talent system doesn’t seem as bad as everybody initially thought, so… Maybe I’ll give it a try. I already have the “talent tree” for my main character worked out (it’s a warlock)

Really the reason why I left was because it seemed to me like Blizzard were dedicated more to watering down what little content they left us to raid, and less dedicated to actually making it worth our time.

To me the fun of raiding was always about “the kill”. And then with Lich King, instead of giving us a lot of new “kills”, Blizzard instead substitutes that with a lot of old content, two dragons and a lot of “ways to kill” them, and that completely ruined it for me.

I’m not gonna waste my time doing the same thing over and over again, only slightly different, for a cookie. I tried it out, and some people seemed to like it, but to me that takes all the excitement out of it.

@9 I totally agree with you on that! Which is why, if I do come back to the game, I’ll only play the quests and won’t do HL PvE. It’s not appealing anymore. What really killed it for me was the old gods raid, I forgot the name… With Yogg-Saron and all this shit. Ulduar, was it? In fact, it’s always been about the kills AND the lore altogether for me and that’s IMO the moment they started to get it all wrong

Very excellent interview there Nathan. Although, my concerns aren’t pandas and pokemons. My concern is the theme of war and how that would destroy one sided PVP realms and how it would matter in normal realms. A one sided PVP realm means loads of players from opposite faction will be there for you, ganking, corpse camping and other stuff that would really destroy the fun for everyone.

@9 to me Wrath of the Lich King was the expansion I truly enjoyed and Cataclysm was the expansion that really bored me to death. Of course, ccontent wise, Blizzard spend a lot of time in redesigning Azeroth and its broken questing mechanics, and IMO they did a great job with that. But, end game content seemed lacking in comparison with what we had in vanilla, TBC and WotLK.

I feel like I had so much more stuff to do on that era in a lot of ways. More dungeons, more challenges more questlines that were unique with great rewards. More story behind everything. Here in cataclysm, they started with a huge bang, I mean before the release and the invasions that used to be thrilling, from that I expected to see an unstable world of adventures that are very dynamic.

They created a huge expectations with pre-release event and they came short with post-release content. Firelands was a bit better than previous patches but still it couldn’t make up for the lack of contents.

I really hope they turn things around with MoP.

@10 Ulduar was just massively epic content. Yogg-Saron is still one of my favorite encounters in WoW’s history, I can’t see how could a great challenge like that ruin anything for anyone. Or maybe you have finally succumb to the power of the Old Gods and madness has consumed you. There’s a good reason for not facing Yogg-Saron in certain moments cause it will drive you crazy. While all is seemed lost for you though, me and my brave companions have overcame that challenge and went on to defeat the Lich King, and we will defeat Deathwing, even he will learn that only death is eternal.

@12 I read my post again and I get why you misunderstood me: I wasn’t clear at all lol Ulduar is when I stopped having fun but I kept on playing for a while after that. Maybe I was addicted, maybe I felt I owed it to my guild, I don’t know. But I too went and defeat the Lich King. It just didn’t feel epic to me. The strats to defeat bosses had become easier and easier and it didn’t feel like a real challenge to me. Maybe I simply got bored though… Then I stopped and came back with Cataclysm but once again the HL PvE content didn’t convince me so I stopped again not long after. I think I’m to try Mists of Pandaria but I’ll play as a casual now.

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The internet is full of Female Commander Shepard cosplay from Mass Effect, but very few are as terrific as this one. Visual artist Freya Willia has spent over two years painstakingly creating the perfect suit of armour and the best weapons to make her cosplay of Female Shepard as authentic as possible, Omni tool and […]

This week’s Deals with Gold titles for Xbox Live subscribers is a good mix of modern games and old favourites. The list of discounted games through this week’s Deals with Gold is live with discounts on Assassin’s Creed Unity, Amazing Spider-Man 2, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3, and more. The deals are live now […]

Destiny players regularly compare the size of their Grimoire Points. Learn how to make yours the biggest. Destiny guide: how to earn Grimoire Points In Destiny, earning most Grimoire cards is just a matter of playing the game, maybe a little more attentively than usual. You’ll either need to complete a certain number of actions […]

Shovel Knight owners will benefit from the generosity of Kickstarter backers quite soon. Because Shovel Knight was overfunded during its Kickstarter campaign, developer Yacht Club Games committed to releasing free content updates. The first of these, Plague of Shadows, has now been detailed. The expansion stars baddy Plague Knight, who turns on his former allies, […]

GTA has a long history of controversy. The latest Did You Know Gaming tells the full stories behind the sensational headlines. Grand Theft Auto is such a byword for controversy that it’s easy to forget the full context of what actually happened to bring mainstream press, politicians and interest group awareness to the Rockstar series. […]

PlayStation Now will expand to the tune of five new games this month. The March PS Now additions are Infamous 2, Twisted Metal, R-Type Dimensions, Alone in the Dark: Inferno and Operation Flashpoint: Red River. PS Now will set you back $20 per month or $45 for a three month subscription. It offers all you […]

Final Fantasy 10/10-2 HD Remaster hits PS4 in May. The PS4 release date for Final Fantasy 10/10-2 HD Remaster is May 12 in North America and May 15 in Europe. Gematsu reports a special pre-order bonus calendar with art by Yoshitaka Amano is available through the Square Enix Store and participating retailers. In Europe, pre-ordering […]

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare players can now aspire to the ranks of Grand Master Prestige. Advanced Warfare developer Sledgehammer Games will add 15 more Prestige levels to the latest Call of Duty, giving players at max XP a chance to grow even further. According to the Sledgehammer Games blog, when you enter Master level […]

Destiny’s toughest challenge gets even nastier if you throw Creepers into the mix. The ultimate Destiny challenge – for now – is the Crota’s End raid. Taking place in an alternate dimension accessed through the Hellmouth on the Moon, the Raid takes Guardians through a pit of darkness to the resting place of Crota himself. […]

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D protagonist Shulk is the Heir to the Monado, his distinctive red sword. Let this trailer fill you in on what that means. Xenoblade Chronicles 3D releases for New 3DS on April 2 in Europe and April 10 in North America. As well as all the content of the Wii original, it has […]

The Elder Scrolls: Total War is a terrific mod allowing you get get intimately involved with the history of Bethesda’s detailed fantasy universe. The first release of The Elder Scrolls: Total War dropped on the weekend, giving players their first chance to try out LoRdNazgu1‘s creation. This version runs from 3E 427 to 4E 45, […]

Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 is out now. Yes, we’re surprised too. You can grab Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 on Steam for $8. Developer Scott Cawthon really doesn’t mess about; the game was only announced in early January. Here’s the blurb: Thirty years after Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza closed it’s doors, the events that took […]

EVE Online is a hotbed of villainy, espionage and backstabbing, but one intrepid corporate thief has made waves even in this setting. The thing about EVE Online is that it’s a true sandbox: the game’s rules are very loose, and allow players to make careers out of theft, piracy, assassination and espionage in addition to […]

Nintendo of America has announced a fresh supply of the difficult to find Marth Amiibo. The Marth Amiibo will be back in stock in the US in late April, the platform holder said on Twitter today. Planning to pick up Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. and don’t have a Marth amiibo? More are headed to stores in […]

Skyrim has been granted a new beta update – more than three years after launch! – to improve the experience for modders and those who use them. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim released in November 2011. I think that’s worth noting before we discuss the beta update that dropped today, even as Bethesda is working […]

Knights of Pen & Paper 2 is very serious business so please enjoy this very serious trailer. “Return to the dicey world of Knights of Pen & Paper for a new turn-based adventure, where players get to take on the role of players, and also of the game’s encounter-designing, rules-laywering GM in a fully customizable […]

Amplitude may have been delayed but we still get something this March: a fine new gameplay trailer. Amplitude is coming to PlayStation 3 and PS4 sometime in northern summer. It’s a reprisal of Harmonix’s classic rhythm action game, a forerunner to its later efforts with Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and was crowdfunded. Update: Turns […]

DayZ creator Dean “Rocket” Hall has dropped the first vague details of his new game project. “I do not want to make safe games. I do not want to make games the way we have been making them. What if the most experienced video game staff in the world collaborated on the most esoteric and […]

AMD has confirmed what most Battlefield fans thought. Battlefield Hardline will indeed support Mantle. Battlefield Hardline will support Mantle, AMD has confirmed. Some players weren’t sure whether the retail version of the game will support AMD’s API, due to its absence from the recent PC beta. AMD did not say whether the feature will be […]

Unreal Engine 4 is a pretty versatile bit of tech, as this new sizzle reel shows. As one of the more ubiquitous engines, Unreal will be on show at GDC this week. Developer Epic produced the following sizzle reel to quickly demonstrate what it can do – cutting edge graphics (there are very few games […]

The latest Survarium patch has readjusted the value of experience and reputation points gained and removed the limit to the maximum amount of ammo you can use in combat. Survarium developer Vostok Games has released patch 0.27a to the public, having recently finished testing it. The patch is a major one and covers changes to […]

Bloodborne is so close you can almost smell its coppery tang on the wind – and also you can watch commercials for it. Bloodborne arrives on PS4 at the end of this month (March 24 North America, March 25 Europe, March 27 UK) so excitement is starting to build. Sony isn’t helping keep us calm […]

Blizzard will soon allow World of Warcraft players to exchange in-game gold for game time and vice versa. Blizzard has announced a new system that will launch soon for World of Warcraft. The system is called WoW Token. Using this system, players will be able to buy game time using in-game gold. Here’s how it […]

Remember 3D Realms’ Bombshell? The isometric ARPG that was announced last year? Well, it’s back, and we get to see gameplay footage. The game stars Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison, a bomb technician turned mercenary with a mechanical arm. She will embark on a quest to rescue the president and save Earth, all while shooting aliens. The […]

Epic Games has made Unreal Engine 4 available for anyone to download and use, for free. Unreal Engine 4 is now free. Anyone can download it and start using it, the developer announced today in a blog post. The download features the the full set of tools used by Epic, and includes 100% of the […]

The winner of the European round of the Call of Duty Championship has been announced. This past weekend, 28 teams representing UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, the rest of Europe and Middle East attended the final of the European round of the Call of Duty Championship. UK team Epsilon eSports was crowned […]

GOG.com is bringing back its Insomnia sale event with even more games. GOG’s Insomnia sale is back with double the amount of games. This year, there will be two sets of games available at once. The sets are seasoned classics and fresh new titles. Each set will feature games with discounts up to 90% off, […]

2K will be shutting down the servers for NBA 2K14 this month. The publisher revealed yesterday that online servers for NBA 2K14 will be turned offline on March 31. “You will no longer be able to play ranked games/online association,” reads the announcement. NBA 2K14 relied on online servers to store save files for MyCareer […]

A Dead or Alive tournament organiser has suggested a soft ban on some of the game’s “over-sexualised” costumes, and not everyone is happy. Tournament organiser “The HuBBs” took to the FreeStepDodge forums to suggest a list of rules that other offline tournaments can follow. The list goes over stages, characters, moves, which is certainly in […]

Bungie hosted an open house Q&A session with the community last week and lots of exciting news have come out of it. Arekkz Gaming has gathered all the information that came out of Bungie’s open house Q&A in one handy video. The list is massive, going over Exotic weapon balance, upcoming events, PVE, Crucible rewards, […]

Developers behind space exploration games Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen will honour the memory of Leonard Nimoy through in-game memorials. The develops of both games have confirmed separately that in-game memorials will be established to honour the memory of the late Star Trek actor, Leonard Nimoy, famous for playing Spock. Elite: Dangerous executive producer Michael […]

Amazon’s latest PlayStation 4 deal is not one to miss. With purchase of a PlayStation 4 console from Amazon in the US, the online retailer will throw in digital codes for Infamous Second Son, Killzone Shadow Fall and The Last of Us: Remastered, all for the same MSRP of $399. The Last of Us Remastered […]

The method one Redditor possibly used to leak some details from Destiny’s House of Wolves was the same one he used to predict the inventory of Xur: Agent of the Nine. Last week, Reddit user Megamanexe4 leaked a few pieces of House of Wolves expansion content. The leaks included strikes, new Crucible mode, and a […]

Mortal Kombat X will be releasing on mobile devices in some form, just not the one you except. Mortal Kombat X is coming to Android and iOS devices as an extension of the main game. It will launch in April alongside the console versions. The mobile game will be part card collecting and part fighting […]

Kojima Productions will unveil something about Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain this Wednesday. Metal Gear Solid fans should standby for a Phantom Pain-related announcement on Wednesday, March 4. According to developer Kojima Productions’ Twitter, there’s going to be an announcement at 2pm GMT on Wednesday. The developer posted the following image. The image […]

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Battlefield Hardline’s Premium membership will give players access to 4 new features, early access to expansion packs and more. EA detailed the offer today – it costs $50 in total (£40 in the UK) and gives players a whole bundle of new gear and content. Check it all out in handy list form below: Masks […]

Voice actor and Hollywood writer David Hayter discusses the differences between movies and games. And politely declines my leading question. “It might be fun to do a crazy, over-the-top film version of Saint’s Row.” Yeah, that headline is a bit cheap but you’re reading the work of a man who once asked the maker of […]

Microsoft has knocked up to £100 off Xbox One bundles in the UK. The Xbox One with Kinect Assassin’s Creed bundle is now £100 cheaper and comes with a free £20 voucher to be spent on the official Microsoft online store. Over on the Xbox online store there’s a £70 price cut on the white […]

Free-to-play 3DS title Pokemon Shuffle has been downloaded over 1 million times. As a reward for playing the match-3 puzzle game Nintendo has gifted players a Complexity -1 item for free. The item reduces the difficulty of a level, according to Eurogamer. By all accounts Pokemon Shuffle is a cynical game with poorly implemented microtransactions. […]

FrozenByte Games has revealed Trine 3, due for release in 2015 And what better way to reveal a new side-scrolling adventure than with a very pretty trailer full of gameplay? The latest in a series that has already sold 7 million copies is earmarked for PC and “other” formats. Trine 2 released on PS3, PS3, […]

A month since it was released on digital platforms, Dying Light’s physical release has topped the UK charts. Techland and Warner’s zombie survival game has proven to be one of the big hits of the year so far. It was released on digital formats a month ago but has only just been released on good-old […]

Think you can take down a jet plane with a grenade throw? This guy can. In fact, he can do it twice. This is in a variation on the player-created deathmatch “Stunters Versus Snipers” which seem to be all the rage in GTA Online at the moment. One team has a sniper rifle (and grenades) […]

The Phantom Pain looks nice even when Kojima just takes a quick pic with his phone. Look at that beauty. We get nice reflection in pink at the first gray of dawn.
pic.twitter.com/aERTBoZT9z — HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) March 2, 2015 The game doesn’t have a release date yet, which makes us a bit nervous for it […]

Dying Light still has legs – maybe because it’s crammed full of secret things to discover. Ten of those have been highlighted by TerraMantis’ latest YouTube video, including reference to the Underpant Gnomes, guitar lessons, farting zombies and well, we don’t want to spoil it for you. Even if you think you’ve seen everything in […]

Why blind ‘em with science when you could kill ‘em with dance moves? revelations raid When I say Resident Evil: Revelations 2‘s Raid Mode dance gestures are deadly, I’m not being figurative. If you finish the first chapter of Revelations 2 you can unlock Gina for use in Raid Mode. All characters can use gestures […]

“Male Inquisitors can now scale the wall,” says a clever Redditor. A new Dragon Age: Inquisition mod removes Blackwall’s romantic restrictions, allowing male Inquisitors to chat up the fuzzy-faced warrior. Blackwall doesn’t have any race preferences, so you’re good to go there. Dragon Age: Inquisition romance mods are pretty common by now, and to be […]

Destiny players willing to faff about with their system clock can solo the Weekly Nightfall if they prefer. The Weekly Heroic is one of Destiny‘s toughest challenges. Responding to player feedback Bungie implemented matchmaking for the Weekly Heroic, but there are players who genuinely prefer to go it alone. There’s now no legitimate way to […]

A Clayfighter remake is inbound, apparently. Interplay has announced a Clayfighter remaster, combining the content of all past games into one package. Features include: Characters such as Bad Mr. Frosty, Blue Suede Goo, Earthworm Jim, Hoppy, Boogerman, Tiny – and more with over 20 characters total Over 20 familiar environments from the series to duke […]

Dying Light players! Are you sick of picking your way carefully up the sides of tall towers? Have I got a trick for you. The parkour system in Dying Light is okay, but climbing anywhere especially high can be a bit tedious. Enter Jesse Lester, who took a look at the tools available and worked […]

Destiny developer Bungie won’t stop tinkering with Exotic weapons. In Destiny, Exotic weapons are supposed to be the best of the best – and to feel unique. Guns like Ice Breaker and Gjallahorn definitely hit the mark there (although less so when everyone has one), but unfortunately, there are a few that just don’t strike […]

Uncharted 4′s first proper trailer bears some remarkable similarities to the opening moments of a much earlier Naughty Dog game. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has more in common with Crash Bandicoot than you might think. It’s Naughty Dog’s first game on a new console, yes – but if you compare Uncharted 4′s E3 2014 […]

Sonic Team leader Takashi Iizuka has said there are no plans to stop making Sonic games. Sonic hasn’t retired from the ranks just yet. “Please rest assured, I personally have no plans to stop making Sonic games for home consoles,” Iizuka told 4Gamer [Japanese]. The comment arose after the site asked if Sonic would become […]

Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones will soon be available on PlayStation platforms, if a trophy list is to be believed. Stealth Inc. 2 initially launched as a Wii U exclusive, disappointing fans of Curve Studios’ tough action game. We’ve heard nothing to contradict this, but Exophase, a generally reliable source, has dug up […]